Grawp
by SnowIris
Summary: Hermione's spending her summer teaching Grawp and ignoring Harry, Ron and even schoolwork! Harry and Ron try to save the day, but things don't go as planned. Please R & R! Thanks!
1. Of the demise of a rabbit

Disclaimer: The story is based on JK Rowling's characters, situations and books. I don't own anything (well, maybe an original character later on but as he is based on her universe, I don't really own the OC either). I'm not trying to make any money. 

**Chapter One: Of the demise of a rabbit******

_August Second, Morning._

_Sunny and Clear. Seventy degrees. _

_Yesterday was a complete waste of time. Grawp showed no progress – his math skills seemed to be regressing (he forgot how to count beyond fifteen, and I had been hoping to progress onto subtraction and negative numbers!). English skills remain stable at least. He has progressed beyond two-word sentences, at times, which I view as a very positive accomplishment. His refusal to understand basic manners of the wizarding (and any human) world is disturbing. At times, his actions are extremely violent, but Hagrid assured me that he wouldn't hurt me (though Ron would most likely tell me never to trust Hagrid…) but I must – I did promise to do this. At least Hagrid let me magically bind him within ten feet of that boulder when I'm there. Let's just hope today turns out better._

*~*~~*~~~*~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~*~~~*~~*~*****

"Grawp, put the poor rabbit down!" Hermione cried futilely.

"No! No! NO!" Grawp chanted in between bites.

"Down!" she repeated, hoping it might make him stop.

Tugging the half-mangled body of the ex-rabbit from Grawp's grasp, Hermione had now been crying desperately for several minutes for Grawp to stop interrupting the day's lesson with a snack. 

"You don't eat rabbits Grawp! In case you hadn't realized, I'm trying to teach you rabbit anatomy here."

Grawp finally dropped the rabbit into Hermione's hands, which she in turn quickly released, recoiling from the sticky, warm and wet blood that ran over her hands and stained the sleeves of her blue top. No use getting emotional and sad over the dead body right now, she thought mournfully to herself. Grawp didn't really understand empathy, sympathy and feeling sorry for dead animals. That would have to be another project. But for another day, most definitely.

Instead, Hermione huffed crossly at her delinquent student. "I'd like to see the day when I'll willingly let my students practice the art of savagely gnawing rabbits," she said.

"Hermy? Wat Grawp do wrong?" Grawp asked in confusion. Like a young child, had no grasp over the concept of irony, something Hermione quite often resorted to when exasperated, as she was most of the time.

While Hermione was muttering to herself, Grawp picked up the rabbit and placed it on the flat part of the big rock they used as a table for learning. Luckily, for the amount of blood running out into the pores of the rock, the only other object there was the pen. Until a few minutes ago, it had had a working hinged door.

To calm herself while recovering from the traumatic experience, Hermione got up and started walking around the clearing. As it was early evening now, the sun had begun to come closer to the horizon and the shadows were growing longer. The moss carpet was soft, the air was pleasant, and Hermione soon gathered herself together. 

When she returned her gaze to Grawp, his innocent face and missing leg off the rabbit carcass revealed what he had been doing. Hermione sighed. Time to move on.

"Ok Grawp, guess what we'll learn now?"

"Wisard stuff?"

"Exactly! Very good!" Hermione said with an exaggerated smile plastered on her face. "We're going to look at magical creatures. Won't that be fun?"

"Ok" Grawp said, not really very excited. After all, since a giant was a magical creature, they did know about other magical creatures. For the purpose of a well-rounded education, however, Hermione had decided to teach this as well.

"Now Grawp, can you tell me what a centaur is? Cen-taur. Got that?"

"Stupid hors men! Grawp hate!"

"Now Grawp, remember that we don't judge people or creatures without sufficient information. I did explain the word sufficient? As in enough, or adequate for the situation."

"Hermy do. But hors men Grawp hate!" To demonstrate his point, Grawp uprooted a small tree and began bashing the surrounding trees ferociously. Hermione yelped and ran for cover while Grawp savagely beat the trees.

*~*~~*~~~*~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~*~~~*~~*~*****

That summer Dumbledore had decided to change his mind completely and let Harry decided where he wanted to be, since his mistake last year had cost Sirius. Harry had therefore decided to endure only three and a half weeks at the Dursleys (the Weasleys were visiting Charlie in Romania then). The time was entirely more bearable since the Dursleys had the threat from Moody and Tonks to keep them nervous.

When Harry had owled Hermione to ask if he could stay with her, she had responded that it wouldn't be possible because she was completely occupied with Grawp. With nothing else to do, Harry was forced to wait until he could go to the Burrow.

*~*~~*~~~*~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~*~~~*~~*~*****

"Harry, we've got to do something," Ron said for the third time that day. It was late afternoon, and after an engaging Quidditch match with Ginny, the twins, and Charlie, Harry and Ron had returned to Ron's messy room. "We've been writing to her for two and a half weeks and she hasn't answered a single owl! That giant is ruining her life. I mean, she even forgot your birthday three days ago!" He stopped for a moment, letting the words sink in (as if they hadn't already) and then went back to pacing around his bedroom, carefully stepping over his Chudley Cannon accessories and his school books, which were strewn all over the floor.

"So what do we do? Hermione's somewhere in a forest, somewhere close to her house, which is somewhere within three hours of platform 9 and ¾. What do we do?" Harry asked. Harry was sitting on Ron's bed, becoming more and more impatient with Ron who just kept repeating what he had said before.

"Well, we need to find her," Ron said (also for the third time that day).

"Er, Ron, I know that. But how do we find her? There's a lot of places with some forest within three hours of platform 9 and ¾. And even if we figure out where she is, how do we get her to leave Grawp?"

"Hmmm. We need to concentrate on finding her first though. Maybe there's a charm? I know! We should owl Hermione, she can tell us! She always knows that stuff."

"Great plan Ron," Harry responded sarcastically. "You know, there's only one problem. Hermione hasn't been answering our owls, right? That's _why we're looking for her!"_

"I forgot about that," Ron said, unperturbed. "Well, who knows any charms?"

"I know! Hermione left some of her library here last time, remember? They wouldn't fit in her school trunk, so Mrs. Weasley took the home from the Order of the Phoenix headquarters."

"Great idea! Now where did she put them?" The two started searching, and in the process, they were forced to start cleaning Ron's room.

*~*~~*~~~*~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~*~~~*~~*~*****

Hermione yawned, overcome with exhaustion. After waiting an hour for Grawp's rage to subside, she had taken a nap. Unfortunately, it had left her more tired than before. 

"Grawp? Where are you?" Hermione said, rising from her hiding place and going out into the clearing.

"Grawp ere." Although the rabbit was not.

"Very good, you used a preposition in the right place!"

"Prepsotion? Wat that?"

"It's a… oh never mind. Anyway, we should practice our English now, don't you agree?" Hermione hoped to finish explaining the concept of tenses today, but as Grawp's sense of time was not fully developed, it was a challenge

"Grawp, listen! You had a rabbit three hours ago. HAD. You don't HAVE a rabbit. Why?"

"Where rabbit? Rabbit not is here." Grawp's look of utter confusion, mixed with impatience looked quite comical.

"Because," Hermione said slowly and patiently, "you ATE the rabbit. Not EAT. If you EAT the rabbit, rabbit here. You ATE the rabbit."

"New rabbit eat? Where. Rabbit good."

"There isn't a rabbit because you ATE the rabbit already."

"It's, Grawp ate rabbit? So no eat?"

"Exactly Grawp. Very good of you to figure that out."

"Hermy hapy. Grawp hapy!"

Hermione went over that concept a few more times before deciding to head back to her house and sleep. Ecstatic over results, she told Grawp to think more about tenses during the night. It was late now, and the forest was very still and silent. As Hermione started walking back to her house though, her voice could be heard reciting part two of a book Snape had given them to study over the summer. This was, after all, Hermione. 

*~*~~*~~~*~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~*~~~*~~*~*****


	2. Of two books and a hairbrush

Disclaimer: The story is based on JK Rowling's characters, situations and books. I don't own anything (well, maybe an original character later on but as he is based on her universe, I don't really own the OC either). I'm not trying to make any money. 

**Chapter Two: A Book, A Book, or a Hairbrush?**

_July Thirtieth, Hermione's Diary, _noon___._

_Cool and_

_It's the thirtieth of June! Oh no!  That means it's Harry's birthday tomorrow – I forgot to get a present for Harry! How could I forget? He always remembers mine – and he's a guy!  This is terrible! I can't even send an owl to him right now. I sent my owl down to Flourish and Blotts yesterday to pick up a delivery of books for Grawp. But my owl is out right now, getting a delivery of books for my instruction with Grawp. And they always have so many delays at Flourish and Blotts… The owl probably won't return in four or five days with the delivery. How could I forget?_

_Cloudy. Sixteen degrees. (How could_ I?)__

_See, Hermione? This newfound devotion to Grawp – it's really causing a personality shift. I mean look – I'm talking to myself in third person! At the Quidditch final, I was practically petrified by the sight of Grawp. Now I spend over three fourths of my time teaching that creature – all because of a promise Harry and I made to Hagrid. It's like in those books – you know it's bad for you, yet you can't stop. It's fairly ironic actually. Grawp is chained so that he can't come within ten feet of me, but I'm bound to him by a bond just as strong, though not magical._

_I suppose I should start preparing Grawp's lesson. Yesterday was satisfactory. We covered addition up to ten plus ten, and I taught him the names of important notables within contemporary and ancient history (although he fell asleep as I was running through the list of past headmasters Hogwarts has had). And other things that did not sink in as well. Today I think we have to work on vocabulary. And I should start teaching him about the parts of speech. Now where did I put the notebook?_

*~*~~*~~~*~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~*~~~*~~*~*

Back at the Burrow, Harry and Ron had searched and cleaned all of Ron's room. Harry had found everything from two pairs of mismatched socks (maroon, red, grey and a smelly formless shape Ron claimed was a sock but would really only appeal to Dobby) to a stash of dungbombs (generously donated by Fred and George, who now only stored their own jokes and candy, never anyone else's) to a set of crumpled letters, addressed to Hermione. Ron had quickly snatched those away. Ron had found a broken pocket sneakoscope from when he was little, a stash of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (his first in that bag was rotten fish, so he decided to wait with taking another one), and some owl treats (for Pigwidgeon).

They were about to go downstairs and do the kitchen when Ginny came in, slightly irritated.

"What are you two doing?" she asked. "I've been trying to finish that essay on applying texture to transfigurations McGonagall wants done over the holidays, but you've been making so much noise that it's been impossible to concentrate."

"Er, sorry," Harry said, "we're looking for Hermione's books that she left here – well actually at the Order of the Phoenix but we thought they'd have been taken home."

"Oh they were," Ginny said exasperatedly, "but since I was the only one who remembered them, I just put them into my room. I'll go get them. But first, how can searching for a book make so much noise?"

"We were trying to find the books using cleaning spells since my room was a mess," Ron tried to explain, "but neither of us are too good at them and so we ended up with not so good results."

"That explains it all," Ginny answered, not surprised at all that Harry and Ron couldn't manage their cleaning spells properly. "Wait here." She exited the room, leaving Harry and Ron waiting impatiently

Ginny returned a few moments later (showing how much faster she could find something than Harry and Ron) and gave the two the stack of books. There were twenty in all, but this was Hermione, after all. Staggering from the weight, Ginny dumped the pile onto the bed, accidentally hitting Harry on the nose and apologizing profusely for the injury. She then left, saying that she was late for her meeting at Diagon Alley. To Ron's incredulous face, she added that some people liked getting their books early so they could be prepared in advance since this was OWLs year. While Ron muttered something about how Ginny was becoming another Hermione, Ginny closed the door and went to the fireplace for the floo powder.

"Aha!" Harry exclaimed, skimming through the fifteenth book they had looked at so far, titled _The Geography of the Magical World. _

"What?" Ron asked.

"Here's a charm. Called the locator charm, or as some up to date wizards have begun to say, the GPS charm. It can figure out where you are, or where something or someone is. It's quite simple too, but we need something of Hermione's."

"Use the book!" Ron commented. "It'd really make her mad enough to respond, even if it wouldn't be a happy response."

"No, we can't, the object will be destroyed." Harry replied seriously, as he hadn't figured out that Ron was joking.

"Ok, ok, I know. But there is that copy of _Hogwarts, A History that she gave me for my birthday, that counts, right? It's really boring, and I haven't even finished it. No, no, we can't use that either," Ron assured Harry at his face of disbelief. "Yeah, and on second thought, it's not even hers anymore. But what about her hairbrush? She can get another one."_

"Sure, we can use that. Why did she leave her hairbrush though? You'd think she'd remember it."

"Oh, it broke when she was here and I never got around to fixing it."

Harry accepted the answer and they set to work preparing the charm.

*~*~~*~~~*~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~*~~~*~~*~*

After arriving home, Hermione made herself some tea and sat down to read _The Runic Rigmarole. _Crookshanks, feeling very neglected and unloved this summer, leapt up into her lap, purring.

Ever since her mistake during the Ancient Runes OWL (when she had mistranslated ehwaz) she had been intent on becoming a flawless expert on runes. As if she wasn't already. But this was Hermione, and even though she was not up to her usual standards (which would be trying to get Madam Pince to borrow her every single book Hogwarts had on the subject over the summer and memorizing them by heart) she still managed to read quite a few books ordered from Flourish and Blotts on the subject.

When the examiner had this miniscule mentioned the mistake in the exam review, she had meant it as further praise for her top grade. The examiner was amazed at finding only one mistake. Obviously, Hermione had not taken it that way.

As the lines began to blur together, Hermione decided that it was time to sleep. She put the cup in the dishwasher and proceeded up the stairs, Crookshanks meowing loudly to be picked up and carried as he trailed behind her up the stairs. Hermione rolled into bed, too exhausted to do anything but charm her wand to wake her up in four hours. She really had to finish that essay for Flitwick, she thought drowsily. It was supposed to be 4 feet, but Hermione's had just passed seven feet and wasn't even close to done. Of course she couldn't just stop, she reprimanded herself when she heard Ron's voice telling her to leave it. That would ruin the pace of the whole essay, she retorted. Asleep in seconds after that, she slept dreamlessly, as if having drunk a draught of dreamless potion.

*~*~~*~~~*~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~*~~~*~~*~*

After hours of hard work trying to activate the charm, Ron and Harry finally managed. It was extremely tricky, for the charm had subcomponents since the map they were charming had to become permanently charmed. Triumphantly waving the still smoking parchment before him, Ron searched eagerly for Hermione's name on the map.

"I found her!" Ron cried.

"Ok, let's just get our brooms and sneak out while it's dark," Harry said, glad at finally having succeeded.

Five minutes later, and without alerting Mrs. Weasley, the two were soaring high above the houses, following the blinking dot on the page with Hermione's name on it.

"So what do we do when we find her?" Ron asked.

"You know, I was just thinking about that... Giants discovered by the ministry are always captured, right, and then sent to a giant reserve?"

"Maybe," Ron said uncertainly. Ron had never been very good at Care of Magical Creatures. Of course, the quality of Hagrid's lessons could also be the problem.

"No, no, I know that's right. So all we need to do is tell the ministry where Grawp is hiding."

"Hermione will get really angry at us though. And the ministry won't like it if we come just tell them that they have to go out and capture a giant."

"Hmmmm," Harry said. "But what about this. We send an anonymous letter to the ministry telling them of a giant hideout. They'll only find one giant though. While the ministry catches Grawp, we'll alter Hermione's memory, all then she'll think that Grawp ran away!"

"Great plan! Now all we need to do is send a letter."

*~*~~*~~~*~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~*~~~*~~*~*

_Author's Notes: In case you missed it, the diary entry dates don't follow the text. The diary entries go backwards in time (will end with the beginning of the summer). The text goes forward as usual._

_Ok, thank you to my 2 reviewers CrystalDragonfly and Emily-Dufleng. Only 2! Sigh, 2 is better than none! Hehe… Oh yeah, and I misspelled happy to hapy because then you get the long a sound. I suppose the actual change was necessary, but the two are different._

_Ok, please review and see u in chapter 3!_


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